1. Eat Often
Space your meals out three hours apart and make them small. Aim for three “meals” and two or three snack size meals. You’ll kick-up your metabolism this way. If you’re still full after three hours, you ate too much at the last meal.
2. Go Green
Fill up on vegetables. They don’t weigh a lot on the calorie counter, but they’ll fill you up, add fiber and insure your supply of vitamins and minerals. Go for cruciferous vegetables and dark leafy greens.
3. Drink it up
Drink water. If you’re under-hydrated, your body will hoard water and you’ll feel bloated. Plus water helps your body process toxins and to eliminate lactic acid after you’ve worked out. You’ll want to drink at least one ounce of water for every two pounds you weigh. Have at least 8 ounces of water ½ hour before a meal, and minimize your water intake at meals to small sips. You want your digestive fires undiluted for the best metabolism of your food. Sodas and juices are not water.
4. Choose Proteins
We burn about 25% of the calories in each gram of protein while it’s being digested. Compared to carbohydrates (which only take about 6%) protein wins on the calorie burn race. And protein will give you the fuel to build the muscle you want.
5. Cut your Carbohydrate Intake
But don't cut it completely. Here’s a trick. Alternate low carb and normal carb days like this:
Give yourself two days with one serving of carbohydrates like brown rice, white sweet potato or quinoa. Replace the missing carbs on these two days with vegetables and protein. On day three, have four servings of carbs. Then repeat for a second time. When you’ve done this cycle, limit yourself to 3 servings of carbs per day. You’ll notice your body shift. One serving is about the size of your clenched fist.
6. Challenge Yourself
If you weight train on Monday, Wednesday and Friday then hit the gym for an additional cardio blast on Tuesday and Thursday – and make these two days “challenge” days. Aim to run farther in the same amount of time, or to increase your time from 20 minutes to 25 minutes. Every week challenge yourself to be better than the week before.
7. Work Up-and-Down
Alternate a lower-body set with an upper-body set when training with no rest between the two sets. Pause 60 seconds and repeat the routine. Do this 3 times for a total of 6 sets. You’ll be resting your lower-body while performing an upper body set and vice-versa.
8. Do the Big Ones
Work your big body parts. Heck, work your arms too. But focus on your bigger body parts. Working them will create the calorie burn and muscle you want. Your abdominals get worked every time you do a squat, lung, bench press or pull down. Do your abs workouts, but don’t count on them to produce a six-pack. Getting lean and putting muscle on the rest of your body is a better solution.
9. Sleep Deep
At night our bodies detoxify things like lactic acid as well as emotional waste. When it’s doing that, it’s also secreting growth hormones that we want to build muscle. Besides, you know how good you feel, and how much energy you have to work out after a solid nights sleep.
Try this for 10 days: Take a warm shower (or better yet, soak in a bath with magnesium flakes) before you sleep every night; your skin holds surface tension from all the electro-magnetic fields you’ve been exposed to during the day disrupting your sleep.
10. Get Smaller, Look Bigger
When you lean down, your body will be smaller and tighter. Your jeans won’t fit anymore, but you’ll actually look bigger because your muscular definition will be more visible. So eat more often, on smaller plates and double up on your cardio. If you make your mantra “yes I can”, you’ll be beach ready before summer.
Train your Body. Train your Mind. Tame your Tongue.
Information on this site is not a substitute for consulting a licensed medical professional or nutritionist. Never begin an exercise or nutritional regime without consulting your health care provider.
